The first few months after Matt died from a heart attack were just a blur, Carolyn says. She worried about how she’d be a solo parent to her ten children, the youngest only one year old. “Matt and I performed so well together as parents; to have to do it all by myself was such an adjustment,” she said.

Carolyn also worried about finances: “How was I going to make my house payment or my car payment? I couldn’t imagine if I wouldn’t have a place to live, or I didn’t have a car to get my kids to school.” The Kinzler Foundation provided financial assistance for basic family needs to Carolyn and her family in those first few months, giving them time and space to move forward to a new normal.

Carolyn shares that all of her kids are doing really well; whether they are at schools in Grand Rapids, in college in Michigan or Texas, or living with their growing families nearby. Carolyn has remarried, Steve, a widower with two children of his own. She shares, “When you’ve lost something that was so dear and special, and then you find it again, it’s such a gift.”